Our Work

Safe Consumption Spaces, Drug User Health, and Overdose Prevention

The campaign for safe consumption spaces in Seattle and King County aims to help shift the paradigm of how our city and county address the public health crisis presented by substance abuse, moving towards treating public health problems with public health solutions. Safe consumption spaces, where individuals who use drugs can use in a safer manner, without shame or fear of arrest, provide a better alternative to our current reality of open air, public drug use. We aim to bring awareness to the issue and push our city and county to take what is both a bold and profoundly reasonable step: create safe consumption spaces, co-located within existing service providers and accessible to areas and communities most deeply affected by the war on drugs, the heroin epidemic, and public drug use.

Housing

VOCAL-WA works closely with the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, Real Change, and other organizations dedicated to harm reduction, homeless advocacy, and housing first. VOCAL members are currently working in allyship with other organizations and advocates to bring an end to homeless encampment sweeps and the displacement of individuals who are unhoused in our city and increase funding for housing, services, and shelter that meets the needs of individuals affected by homelessness. VOCAL calls on elected officials to sweep dirt, not people!